1. Field of Invention
This application relates to the field of wireless communication between computing devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and method for determining which access points are presented to the user or set as default for communication and locking onto a particular access point for communication.
2. Description of Related Art
The availability of wired and wireless network access points (NAP) allows mobile devices like laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to enable users to be more mobile, providing access to corporate networks, e-mail, home networks and the Internet from anywhere. With the advent of the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless communication, and other popular wireless technologies, software products that protect against unwanted access to information stored on mobile devices and corporate servers is highly desirable.
Traditional security architectures assume that the information assets being protected are ‘tethered’—wired to a particular network infrastructure such as a company's network infrastructure. But mobile users can pick up valuable corporate information, such as by copying files from a server to a laptop, and walk away from the corporate network, and connect to other networks with different security policies. Users with laptops and mobile devices want to take advantage of wireless technologies, to connect wherever they are—at work, at home, in the conference room of another company, at the airport, a hotel, a highway or at the coffee shop on the corner. The mobile device's network environment is constantly changing as the user moves about. Each environment has different needs in terms of security. Each environment presents different challenges to protect the information on the mobile device while allowing access to email, the Internet, and company Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Personal firewalls are designed to deal with static environments. A personal firewall could be ideally suited for mobile users if users knew how to adapt their configuration for their particular mobile application. Unfortunately, security settings for one situation can compromise data security in another. The configuration of popular personal firewalls typically requires a level of expertise on how the technology actually works that average users do not possess. Additionally, personal firewalls don't protect against all 802.11 intrusions. For example, when a user configures a personal firewall off to surf the Internet through their wireless device, their files may be vulnerable to unauthorized malicious wireless attacks on their computer.
Solutions that secure data in transit, for example a (VPN) connection, from a corporate server to a mobile client device do not protect the data once it is stored on the mobile device. For example, an executive could be retrieving sensitive files or emails from the corporate network, and the VPN will stop eavesdroppers from seeing the data in transit, but once the data is stored on the executive's mobile device, hackers in the parking lot could break into the mobile device and copy or maliciously alter the data. With the onset of new powerful mobile devices that can store corporate data, IT managers see their network perimeters having to extend to the new limits of these mobile wireless connections.
Another problem for mobile users is selecting and remaining connected to an access point when multiple access points are accessible within a dynamically changing environment. In a multiple access point environment, the prior art dynamically determines the access point with the strongest signal and switches to that access point. However, this is problematic because changes in the user's environment that cause reflections or disturbances of the wireless signals cause the wireless adapter to switch to another access point. Such switching to another available access point causes a temporary loss of connection, and re-initialization of the connection and other security protocols such as VPNs.
Thus, there is a need for a system that can control which access point is used and the condition under which the access point is switched.